Wonderland in Alice
by QTPiL13
Summary: Who is Alice? A psychiatric ward patient, or a lost little girl stuck in wonderland? Or is she both?
1. Chapter 1

"Sweetheart, wake up… Time to take your medicine." A thrumming pounded in my head, beating my eardrums in and out to the rhythm of my heartbeat. It was morning at the small psychiatric hospital where I worked, my least favorite time of day; It meant that I would have to wake grouchy patients and administer their bitter-tasting medicines that kept them dangling precariously on the edge of sanity and their own twisted dementia.

"Mmm…?" The old, shattered woman that lay on the bed beside me stirred, a soft utterance emitting from her chapped lips. Wrinkled skin draped loosely from her would-be beautiful face, and the limp, grey waves of hair, no longer even hinting at their once luminous golden sheer, draped unceremoniously on her pillow. Blue eyes blinked open; I could feel their cold stare pierce through me, ageless in their infinite innocence.

"Good morning, Miss Alice." I tried to be chipper, even though one of my small, delicate hands, skin the color of milk chocolate, was wringing at the fabric of my pale pink nurse's uniform. I held out a pill to the old woman in the palm of my hand. As she reached out to take it, the colors of our skin clashed entrancingly: My warm, beautiful brown and her deathly white. I left a cup of orange juice on her bedside table and drew open the bland white curtains, exposing sunlight and a city scene outside the window on the wall opposite her bed.

After making sure Alice took her pill, I stepped outside, leaving the door partially open, as is the practice at the institute. It grants patients their privacy, but allows we nurses to easily monitor them. I glanced at the clipboard in my arms to see who my next patient was… A Stanley White. I groaned inwardly, and prepared his medicine, and myself, before knocking softly on his door and stepping into the room.

"Nurse." He greeted me gruffly. Stanley, a rich, middle-aged man with tan skin and jet black hair, was admitted to the hospital after several counts of attempted suicide. I dreaded seeing him each morning, sitting in the uncomfortable wooden chair provided in each room, staring out his window at a graffitied brick wall across the street. I had always found it disturbing that my employers had placed a depressed, often hopeless man in a room with so dreary a view.

"Hello, Stanley," I responded, a little more awkwardly than I would have liked, though I doubt the man noticed. "Here you are…" He took the medicine from me, downing it as always without even a sip of water. "How are you feeling today?"

My friendly chit-chat received nothing but a shrug of his broad shoulders and a grunt, so I smiled weakly at him and took my leave. I sighed as I headed back to the nurse's station, shaking my head dejectedly. It is a depressing line of work, I'm in, but somebody has to do it.

"Dinah!" I heard a shaky, slurred voice call from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at the sound of my name, eyes falling upon Alice, standing outside her doorway, clutching her hair. "Where have you gone?" She walked slowly over to the spot where I stood, petrified. Her gate was that one would expect of an old, tired woman, but surprisingly determined.

I reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Honey, please, just tell us who's Dinah?" This was a common, yet always startling occurrence at the hospital, patients calling out for lost friends or family members. Yet I couldn't remember ever reading about a Dinah in Alice's list of family members, which I had all but memorized. I had taken a special interest in Alice for some reason: Perhaps it was the way she never complained about her medicines, the way most of the other patients did. Or violently thrash about at night, scaring the young interns on duty. Or maybe it was simply that look in her eyes, as if always clutching at her lost youth. Whatever it was, I was drawn to the feeble old lady.

"Dinah? Dinah!" Alice called desperately, not acknowledging my presence, my touch, or my query. I took Alice's hand and tried to gently guide her back to her room. "Come here, come here.. It'll be okay. We'll look for Dinah, I promise." Alice went obediently with me, but her eyes were glazed over, as if seeing some other dimension invisible to me. When we reached the woman's room, I sat her down on the bed before exiting, closing the door and locking it from the outside so Alice was trapped inside.


	2. Chapter 2

"Doctor Carson? The patient in room 217… Yes, right, Alice… She's having some sort of breakdown. Yes, I locked her in her room… She was screaming for some person named Dinah? Of course I've read her history! There is no mention of a Dinah!... Yes, please hurry. Thank you." I hung up the phone at the nurses' station and retreated to the employee lounge. I sunk down into the sofa, burying my head in my hands to help me think. _There has to be some reason she's yelling for Dinah. Who is Dinah?_ I asked this question over and over in my head, but never coming to a conclusion. _Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock…_ The clock on the wall tapped out the beat to the seconds, the minute hand spinning around the face. I grabbed the huge binder sitting on the wooden endtable beside me, containing patient records. I flipped through it until I came across the name Alice Pleasance written across the top of the page. I scanned through her family history, again finding nothing.

"God!" I exclaimed to nobody in particular, shaking my head. I sat waiting for what felt like an eternity before a tall, grey-haired man walked into the room. "Doctor Carson, thank God."

"Come with me, Ethel." Rich Carson, one of the leading experts in psychiatry at our institution, led me out into the hallway. We walked for a while, in stiff silence, me trailing several paces behind him. I had to walk quickly to keep up with his fast gait. "Here we are…" I looked at the room we had arrived at: The medicine closet.

"Doctor…" I began to speak, but was cut off by Carson.

"Was she violent?" He questioned, which startled me. I shook my head furiously, responding, "No, never! Alice isn't like that…"

"Nurse Ethel. Please remember she is a psychiatric patient. They can be perfectly pleasant one moment, and thrashing around wildly the next." Carson stared at me expressionlessly.

I frowned, nodding. "Yes, I know. But Alice doesn't do that. I'd hate to see her on drugs…"

"Nurse! I am not asking your opinion!" Doctor Carson grabbed a bottle of pills and stormed out of the room, leaving me standing there, speechless. I stood in stunned silence for several moments, then ran out of the room to follow him. By the time I got to Alice's room, Carson had already given her the pill, and was attempting to talk to her.

"Miss Pleasance, just tell me: Who is Dinah?" He demanded. Alice was sitting in a chair, and Carson was standing in front of her.

Alice's eyes lit up at the sound of Dinah's name. "Dinah? You've found her? Oh, thank goodness… Where is she?" The woman looked around the room, crow's lines wrinkling around her eyes as she smiled.

"Alice…" I made my presence known, kneeling down beside the old lady. "Honey, who is Dinah?" I held one of her hands in both of mine, looking pleadingly at her.

"Dinah? You've never met her? Oh… She's such a good mouser, and she loves to cuddle, and the way she gets milk on her whiskers when she drinks! I've missed her so much!" Alice sighed with pleasure.

Doctor Carson and I exchanged glances. "Sweetheart, is Dinah a cat?"

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Thank you for your reviews! At the time of writing this, I've gotten two reviews on this story so far. I'd be really happy if more people added their thoughts! There will be at least one more installment of this story, explaining what's wrong with Alice. I might break it up into two chapters, though...


	3. Chapter 3

"A cat?" Alice laughed softly, a sound I had never heard from her before. "Of course she's a cat. A wonderful one, at that."

I forced a smile, patting the old woman's hand gently. "Yes, of course. How silly of me… What happened to Dinah?"

I immediately regretted asking this, as Alice broke into a fit of screaming, thrashing about wildly. "Dinah! What did you do to my Dinah?" Tears streamed in rivers down her face.

"Miss Pleasance, we didn't do anything to your cat." Doctor Carson stated gruffly, turning to me and saying, "Go see if any of the hypnotists have an opening."

"Hypnotists?..." I hesitated, but after seeing the stern look on the doctor's face, I nodded, and backed out of the room. "Yes, sir. Right away."

I rushed through the halls, until I came to the treatment ward. Two men in white coats were leaning against the wall, chatting amiably. One of them, bald except for a long grey beard turned to face me, asking, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, Doctor Carson would like your help with a patient." I turned quickly on my heel, beginning back towards Alice's room. "This way, please."

The doctor sighed, but followed after me, muttering to himself. When we arrived back where Carson was sitting in silence with an obviously-sedated Alice, he coughed to announce his presence.

"Doctor Griffith, thank you for coming." Carson nodded in greeting, motioning him over to Alice's bed. "Miss Pleasance is going into hysterics over her cat. Dinah." The last word was said in a whisper as to not set of Alice again.

"A cat…" Doctor Griffith nodded, and then looked over his shoulder at me pointedly.

Carson followed his gaze, and frowned. "Nurse Ethel, kindly leave the room. Shut the door after you."

I opened my mouth to protest, but glanced at the old, matronly woman sitting helpless on the bed. I offered her a sad smile, and left. I wanted her to get help, and if this was how they chose to do it….

I slumped against the wall, waiting for one of the doctors to emerge. I could hear through the door the sound of Griffith's voice, questioning Alice. It took me a moment to realize that the girl's voice I heard speaking back was in fact Alice. She seemed carefree, and young.

After what seemed like hours, Doctors Carson and Griffith walked out of the room, talking, not noticing my presence.

"I never would have expected this…" Carson shook his head slowly. "The death of her cat? Almost everyone has lost a pet… Why would it cause such problems with her?"

Griffith stroked his beard, and shrugged his shoulders. "You heard her… The woman is delusional. All that talk of rabbits with watches, and smiling cats, and pigs dressed up as babies!" I blinked in confusion. "She personified the animals… They replaced her family, after the fire. It's such a shame when someone loses all of their relatives at such a young age…" The two walked off, still discussing the case, leaving me sitting in stunned silence.

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_I had a lot of fun writing this story, and I hope you had just as much fun reading it. Please review!_


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